"For a people that seem to pride themselves on taking their time with everything they do," Benedict grumbled, "they sure like things to be done quick once they've made the decision."
"I can't say that I mind moving quickly," Astrid answered. "We've been sitting around for more than long enough."
"I know I'm the only one," Skandr protested with a laugh, "but I wouldn't mind having another month to solidify my experiments with sleet to make an actual spell that works. As it is, my spells don't do much, but with a little bit more time, I'm sure I could make the water freeze as soon as it made contact with the enemy. If so, I could—"
"Yes, we understand, you are very impressive," Muti cut him off with a growl. "I do not wish to continue to hear of your successes when we could be in the Dungeon and progressing towards Steel. Do you not feel the eyes of the lion, searching for you and hoping to devour you? How are you comfortable without strengthening yourself as soon as you can?"
"You, most of all," he replied to the Barbarian, "should understand best why I would gain an advantage from additional study. How much stronger do you think you are because of your boon?"
"I cannot tell what progress has been made," Muti growled back, "until there are foes for me to face. When my Skills drain their life, I can make a statement. I cannot decide what I shall focus myself on until I can see the results of my practice. I will not use deadly force against my bound companions, so I must find enemies to hone my blades against."
The party continued joking back and forth, and, despite his words, Astrid could tell that Skandr too was looking forward to being more active once again. She smiled widely as she looked at her party, seeing her friends in a way that she only could because of years of trust and working at each other's side. They all had become more than just allies, and could understand each other more deeply than mere acquaintances. And, with those jokes filling the air, the distance that separated her from her next farewell disappeared before she could fully prepare herself. As she walked into the clearing that had become their home for the last couple of weeks, the longest the party had camped out in one location, she saw that her parents had already packed all of their things.
"You're already to go so quick?" She asked with a lump quickly forming in her throat.
"Regardless of the results of your meeting with this Grove Warden," Brighid answered, "this would be the time in which you left this place. In that same vein, it's time for us to return home, to our much more ordinary life."
"And, as always," Savraba chuckled, his bright red hair with a few streaks of silver glinting in the sunlight as much as his pearly, white grin, "we had to make a bet out of the results."
"Which of you thought we wouldn't be accepted?" Astrid chuckled in a way that was almost more of a sob. The emotions she couldn't quite place mixed with her amusement at her parents' consistency burst out in a way that left her flabbergasted.
"No," Brighid answered. "Instead, we bet on how long they'll let you be here. Mine was until level 50, with further negotiations to take place once you receive your evolution quests."
"And I have more faith in you, as always," her father laughed. "My bat was level 61."
Astrid laughed and took her father, and then her mother into her arms. Tears still welled in her eyes as she was forced to remember that she had to be gentle with her father now, and that, though her mother's total attributes dwarfed her own, her own Power and Fortitude weren't too far off of her mother's. At least, that's what she supposed, given the woman refused to share what her Class's attribute growth rates were.
"The permission was granted into level 71," she settled her parents' bet with a wry chuckle.
Her mother shook her head and returned the hug. As Brighid pulled back and looked up at her daughter's face, a tear fell from the corner of her eye.
"I…" The stubborn woman, Astrid's model in so many ways, choked over the words. She swallowed, regathered herself, and with a faint grimace, repeated, "I am sorry. For… not trusting your judgment."
She didn't elaborate beyond that, but Astrid considered that enough of a victory for now. Instead of pushing her mother to explain exactly what she meant, she instead smiled and kissed her mother on the forehead.
"Thank you for being here," Astrid said. "Regardless of anything else, you two have both helped me and my party a lot. There's something to be said of the value of old people and their experience."
"I don't mind attention, being called to my age," her father said, pulling at the silver streaks at his temples. His face had always been worn by worry and stress beyond his years, and now his hair carried that same testament of age, and it had grown longer than usual and past his shoulders in these weeks. "In fact, I think it's distinguished to be remembered for my age."
Going unsaid was how her mother didn't appreciate being called old, and never had. It was an old subject that Astrid would always use to needle at her mother when she was feeling feisty, and it frequently ended with her forced to do pushups or something similar. This time, though, Brighid's face didn't screw up in semi-feigned anger. Instead, her face softened, and her soft skin seemed to lose some of the tension that kept it looking youthful. She sighed and reached up to Astrid's face, pinching her cheek gently before pulling her head down into another embrace.
"I wish you'd been able to meet your grandparents," Brighid said, taking Astrid by surprise. "They would have been thrilled to see how far you've come, and were better at dealing with people than I've ever been. I'm sure they would have valuable insight for you."
"You never said how they died," Astrid said, remembering how her mother had rather explicitly declared that she needed to be more insistent in asking questions. The way that Brighid's eyes flicked towards Muti was enough of an answer and reminder of her mother's hostility towards Barbarians and why that may be.
"Taken before their time," Brighid instead said simply. "More importantly, be safe. I don't think you'll be able to send letters nearly as much while you're here in the Sanctuary, but send them when you can. We love hearing from you. We will be back in Schteldt and shouldn't be sent anywhere else anytime soon, so you'll know where to send them."
Astrid nodded, unable to muster the words in response. Her father stepped forward and cupped her cheek in his hand. "I'm proud of you. Keep doing as you are doing, you'll change the world."
Instead of saying anything else, Astrid took both of her parents into her arms and hugged them tight. She felt the emotion swell in her throat, but she managed to say, "Thank you, father."
"We are proud of you," Brighid said, simply, smiling at her taller daughter. "Looking forward to hearing from you."
"Wait," Astrid said, remembering something in her pocket. A letter addressed to Ahna was there, crumpled from months of staying in her pocket. The contents had been added to until it was a thick package stuffed with half a dozen neatly folded papers, and Astrid figured it was as near to complete as it would ever be at this point. It had plenty of stories and questions for her friend, but more than anything, it was just a testament to the enduring nature of their relationship.
Her father accepted the letter and placed it carefully into his pocket before both of her parents stepped back, and Greely stepped forward.
"Wanderers," he said, "I'm proud to have recommended you to the Wandering Trials. I'm ashamed to have failed you and the others in your Trial. I look forward to seeing how far you come, and know that, whenever and wherever it may be, I look forward to assisting you in the future. for now, here's a book that I believe will be of use to you."
As he said it, he held out a familiar book. Astrid took it, opened the first page, and saw that it was, in fact, the full description of all of the boons that humanity had learned of. She nodded and placed it in her spatial pouch. description of all of the booms that humanity had learned of. She nodded and placed it in her spatial pouch.
The five members of the delver party bowed their heads towards him and muttered their thanks, before he then bowed deeply, turned on his heel, and pulled Brighid and Savraba with him as he walked into a tree. This towering addition to the forest seemed to come alive at his approach and split its trunk open into a doorway that he walked through. As soon as he stepped through, he disappeared, and Astrid's parents behind him did the same before the tree collapsed back in on itself, looking as if nothing had happened.
Astrid wiped a tear from under her eye and then turned to look at her party.
"Go ahead and pack up, no need to keep our new hosts waiting any longer than we have to."
***
You are ready to be guided to your destination?
"Yes," Astrid answered. They all had gathered their things into their spatial pouches, with their final payment secured from Greely for all of the materials that they had passed on to him. In the end, other than the materials for Astrid's sling and a small trinket that they each kept made from a feathered serpent's feather and scale, they sold everything else. Before long, they would be surpassing Iron tier and wouldn't need these materials any longer, so it would be better to just hold onto the money and buy things that were better suited for them.
Then open your minds and prepare yourselves.
As Grove Warden Ssthall's voice faded from her head without giving additional context, Astrid suddenly felt an impression at the edge of her consciousness. Keeping the Verdant Walker's command in mind, she embraced the information that flowed into her head. With a groan, she suddenly saw a path to take through the forests of the Sanctuary. Her mind's eye saw her flying through thickets and meadows, over rivers and waterfalls until she arrived near the bottom of the tallest mountain she'd ever even dreamed of. There, the vision faded, and her perception returned to reality.
Her vision swirled, dizzy as she fought to right her view of the world. The sudden journey her mind had been on disoriented her so strongly that she couldn't manage to keep her bearings. A hint of nausea flooded her, but slowly faded as she righted herself. The rest of the Wanderers reacted similarly, though the higher their mental attributes, the less they seemed to struggle with the deluge of information. Then, without any additional words or information nor allowing them any time to recover the Grove Warden gave their final address.
Go there. A Warden will find you and direct you towards your assignment. You may hunt only one deer without any magical phenomena to feed yourselves on the path. Use only wood which is already dead to warm yourselves and contain all flames.
At that, the Warden seemed to settle more deeply into the soil as the face on their trunk returned back to bark and whorls.
"Thank you for your guidance," Astrid gave as a manner of farewell before turning to her party. She was still blinking spots from her eyes as she asked them, "Do any of you know where we need to go? I didn't understand those instructions very well."
"I can lead us to our destination," Muti immediately answered. She swayed where she stood, but she didn't hesitate to give that answer.
Felix started to say something before turning to the side and retching. He didn't go so far as to actually vomit, but obviously, the disorientation he'd felt was even more severe than Astrid. The rest of the party, that being Skandr and Benedict, seemed largely unconcerned and nodded for the Barbarian to take the lead. She took a canteen out, took a quick swig and swished it around her mouth before spitting it to the side and, that done, led the way.
"Was it really that bad?" Benedict asked in disbelief as he followed along behind Muti.
"Nobody who's expressing their unhappiness,": Astrid laughed as she looked at him, "is you, so I would imagine that they're not exaggerating."
Benedict shook his fist at Astrid while they all began running after Muti. She didn't push herself anywhere near her limits, but Skandr had to fully sprint to keep up with the others. As they went, a broad smile spread across his face, and he said, "I was wanting to give this a try."
Then, he went through a very deliberate, slowly enunciated chant as his fingers went through a series of sigils. After about ten seconds, the spell he cast was complete, and lightning coiled over his body as a localized wind started to blow behind him. With this spell's assistance, instead of being forced to sprint while gasping and nearly being forced to draw on mana, he instead spent a set amount of mana to allow himself to move and react more quickly than before. Since his Alacrity was far and away the lowest of the five, his pace dictated how fast they could all move, though Muti didn't push her own speed any higher once Skandr settled into the highest speed he could comfortably maintain.
The trees blurred past as the party moved on their path, and Astrid did the closest approximation to a calculation of how fast they were going. Of course, she didn't have anything other than her own supposition of how far they were going, but she was fairly confident that the speed they could easily maintain without having to stop other than to sleep was at least 60 kilometers an hour. She shook her head in disbelief, knowing that—
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she asked Skandr, "How much faster could you go if you didn't have to worry about using Warlock's Constitution to use just a faint draw of your health and stamina to power your spell?"
He immediately understood and started to do some calculations in his head. His understanding of the relation between his three reserves, namely, health, stamina, and mana, was far beyond her own that her input was worthless, so she just continued running in relative silence. While she did so, Benedict pulled out his flute and began practicing playing it with just one hand while idly moving the spear through forms in his left hand. Each member of the party began moving about fifty percent faster, pushing Astrid's estimations to about 90 kilometers an hour as Skandr finished his evaluation.
"With Immortal Warrior's Aura, I think I could probably push it another ten percent faster," he answered pretty confidently. "I don't know how safe we are in traveling this fast through unfamiliar territory, though."
"There is no scent of any predator that can threaten even you when taken by surprise," Muti answered. "If we are to speed up somewhat, there will be no issue on my part."
"Well, there you go," Astrid answered with a smile. "If you do that, I think we'll be going about 100 kilometers an hour."
"And with Body," Skandr added with a shake of his head and a chuckle, "you can keep me going like that until we decide to take a break."
Astrid nodded and, without saying anything further, activated Immortal Warrior's Aura. She and her mother had spoken in depth with the rest of the Wanderers about what times would be the best to use Aura. There was still the fact that they didn't truly understand how exactly her Boon of the Hero interacted with Immortal Warrior's Aura, but Astrid was fairly certain that, together, it now meant that she would take less damage than what others would have been taking. In effect, the "damage" that Skandr would take through the use of Warlock's Constitution boosting his spells would be less than what she herself took through Aura. A part of her looked forward to seeing how this would change when it evolved to Steel, but before that, she had the boons at level 43 to look forward to.
Even without him saying anything, Astrid felt the moment in which Skandr began to amplify his spell with his, and by proxy, her, life. As she'd gained more attributes, she grew more intimately aware of her body, and she could feel the faint drain to her health as he did so. With how high her passive rate of recovery was, she could almost not have to use Body at all for her health, though her stamina did begin to drop, given she was taking on her own as well as Skandr's physical exertion.
Another part of her practice with her mother was how to only include certain people in Immortal Warrior's Aura, and she very deliberately only included the Wizard at this time. Fortunately, that adjustment to her Skill had been simple enough, after the more difficult changes to Gravity Surge. They rushed through the forest, speeding up and very quickly reaching what Astrid was fairly certain was 100 kilometers an hour.
The views blurred past them as Astrid felt the world grow smaller around her. She had long since heard that Humanity's Bulwark was the smallest of all of the nations, but struggled to understand how people could call it "small" when its borders stretched over 1000 kilometers across the south, and just as long on the east and west. The northern coast, only inhabited by long-standing military encampments and small villages, was narrower, the trapezoid that was Humanity's borders drawn to a shorter 600 or 700 kilometers there.
All her life, Astrid could never see how somebody could call such a massive stretch of land small. And now she realized that, if she wasn't holding herself back for Skandr's sake, she could probably circumnavigate the entire country in less than two days.
The explanations of just how huge the other countries were, and larger still than all of them put together, the Dungeon proper beneath their feet, had never made an impression on her. Now, though, she could begin to understand. Humanity occupied a small corner of the world, her borders fortified in every way conceivable to man, and terrified of the forces that her neighbors might bring to bear.
Supposedly, the Dominion of the True Queen, the lands inhabited by the Hiveguard, and the plains where the Hordes dwelt were both at least twice as large as Humanity's own holdings. Then, though the landmass occupied by the Freed Tribes of the Kin was comparable to the other two foreign nations, they were also the only nation with any sort of a navy. How that worked, how they were able to brave the seas where Dungeon branches and entrances to the Dungeon proper weren't ever culled was a mystery to Astrid, but it certainly had something to do with the aquatic Kin that she had never come in contact with.
Then, finally, was the Verdant Sanctuary. The entire eastern half of the world was claimed by the Verdant Walkers, and the singular border they maintained against both Humanity's Bulward and the Bloodshot Hordes was nearly 2000 kilometers long. Beyond that, there was no reliable report on how far the emerald tree canopies spread. Thousands of kilometers stretched forward, with no end known by any Human, Barbarian, Kin, or Hiveguard. Only the Verdant Walkers knew just how much land they had claimed, and they had no reason to share such information with foreign countries.
Astrid and the rest of the Wanderers rushed forward, running through the rest of the day and into the night. Summer's bright sunlight filtered through leaves overhead, flickering shapes filling the view everywhere they looked. Occasionally, their path would take them through a meadow, where they moved so quickly that the creatures that startled and fled at their approach were quickly passed and left behind in confused, twitchy herds. Deer of all various shapes and sizes, birds with feathers of every color of the rainbow, squirrels with various attributes of mana flickering from their bodies, and predators of every shape from wolf to grass lion were seen by the journeying Iron tiers.
Well after night fell, the party thought to continue, but the sound of rushing water grew so overwhelming that they were forced to slow themselves and observe a wide waterfall before them.
The cascading rapids roared, the river rushing above and below the falls, and, though Astrid knew they could cross under the light of the stars, she called for a halt.
"We don't need to rush any further," she said to the rest of the party with a shrug. "We might as well eat our fill, get some rest, and see the sunrise over the fall in the morning."
"That's your real reason," Benedict said with a smile. "You want to see this in all its glory."
"And I can't wait to hear you stumble over the attempt to describe it to somebody else," Astrid agreed. "Beyond that, I wouldn't mind a little break. I'd guess it's what, four hours to sunrise?"
"Four and a half," Muti corrected.
"And that's just the right amount of time to get a break without feeling like we're wasting time," Astrid said. "Muti, would you care to do our hunt?"
Astrid knew she didn't need to ask as the Barbarian spread her teeth in a wide grin. Then, to Astrid's surprise, Muti turned to Felix and raised her eyebrows. The Guardian nodded, stood up, and led the way out into the darkness, towards a clearing where they had seen signs of deer. Astrid, still wondering exactly how that relationship would end, set about getting herself ready for the night. After all, a warm meal, a good rest, and a beautiful view awaited her before they were soon to arrive at the first enemies and monsters they fought outside of the Trials.
And that sounded like a good night indeed.